THE WIZARD'S SON (1981) - This personal film was planned as a homage to the Silly Symphonies genre of musical animated shorts. With no spoken dialogue, it tells a story through classic personality animation, complimented by an original musical score by Ross Care.

Animation Newsletter Vol. I #5 May 1982, review by Bob Kalin: "In his quiet, learned, innovative traditionalist's way Canemaker, more than any other American animator that I know of, is building bridges between the old and new in animation. . . WIZARD, for all its shortcomings, is a key word in recent American animation because it shows us an artist who cares so deeply for his art that he is willing to risk failing in front of his audience, because by taking the risk and by risking displeasure and ignorance, he will have learned a little more about the art and advanced a step. . . This is as deceptively structuralist an animated film as the most intensely reflexive . . .films."